The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a provisional fine of £17 million to controversial Australian firm Clearview AI over its handling of UK personal data.
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Despite no longer operating in the country, the firm has also been told to stop processing UK personal data and delete any it has.
The company, which provides mass databases and facial recognition technology for law enforcement agencies, has already been found to have broken Australian privacy law and been hit with cease and desist notices from the likes of Facebook and Twitter for scraping public images for its systems.
After a joint investigation with the Australian ICO, the UK's data regulator found that Clearview had violated "several" data protection laws in the UK. It also found the company may be "continuing to process significant volumes of UK people's information" without their knowledge.
"I have significant concerns that personal data was processed in a way that nobody in the UK will have expected," said Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said.
"It is therefore only right that the ICO alerts people to the scale of this potential breach and the proposed action we're taking. UK data protection legislation does not stop the effective use of technology to fight crime, but to enjoy public trust and confidence in their products technology providers must ensure people's legal protections are respected and complied with."
In response, Clearview called the regulator's claims "factually and legally incorrect". The company's founder and CEO, Hoan Ton-That, also said that the ICO had "misinterpreted" his technology and intentions.
"My company and I have acted in the best interests of the UK and their people by assisting law enforcement in solving heinous crimes against children, seniors, and other victims of unscrupulous acts. We collect only public data from the open internet and comply with all standards of privacy and law," Ton-That said, according to the BBC.
Clearview can challenge the proposed fine before a final decision is made midway through 2022.
